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Fur-trimmed day dress with metal belt, worn by Augusta Roddis while at Northwestern University, c.1934. "American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850–1995" by Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder V&A Publishing and accompanying exhibition https://www.thehenryford.org/current-­‐events/calendar/american-­‐style-­‐and-­‐spirit-­‐exhibit/ Courtesy of Collections of The Henry Ford with photo by Gillian Bostock Ewing

Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder, who is holding a sample copy of their book. Photo taken in the studio where the remaining part of the Roddis Collection is held. Edgartown, MA 2015. The painting in the background used to hang in the living room of the Roddis House. The book entitled The Roddis House, a photo essay by Gillian Bostock, may be seen in the right foreground and is available on Blurb.com. Courtesy of Sam Moore/The Martha's Vineyard Times

About 150 years of dresses, men's suits and other garments were stored in the attic of the Roddis family home in Marshfield. The extent of the collection was discovered following the death of Augusta Roddis in 2011. A recently published book describes the collection and its historical significance. File/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Formal portrait of Augusta Roddis by Kay Carrington in 1937. The dress was a Roddis favorite and previously worn by her older sister. From "American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850–1995" by Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder V&A Publishing and accompanying exhibition https://www.thehenryford.org/current-­‐events/calendar/american-­‐style-­‐and-­‐spirit-­‐
exhibit/ Courtesy of Collections of the Henry Ford

Box of hats from the Roddis house. On the far right is a brown fur felt and silk velvet hat from Blum’s – North Chicago, 1940s. The cream-colored wool beret with crystal-covered spherical buttons is by Mr. John, who designed the hats worn by Vivien Leigh in the 1939 film Gone With The Wind. Hat c. 1960. Both hats are included in the book by Bradbury and Maeder, pp. 174 and 243. Photo by Sam Moore/The Martha's Vineyard Times

Details of a cotton and silk evening dress with glass beads, circa 1913. This dress is thought to have belonged to Frances Roddis, the sister of Hamilton Roddis. Frances Roddis wore a similar dress, now at The Henry Ford, to Mardi Gras balls in New Orleans in about 1911. This dress will be donated by Jane Bradbury to the Marshfield Historic Preservation Association in the future. Courtesy of Sam Moore/The Martha's Vineyard Times

Desk in Catherine Roddis' bedroom, which included letters describing some of the garments. "American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850–1995" by Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder V&A Publishing and accompanying exhibition https://www.thehenryford.org/current-­‐events/calendar/american-­‐style-­‐and-­‐spirit-­‐
exhibit/ Courtesy of Collections of the Henry Ford, photo by Gillian Bostock Ewing

Edward Maeder working on the recreation of a favorite gown of Augusta Roddis, which she dubbed "Cocktail." The dress was made of taffeta, a very delicate fabric. Maeder found a manufacturer in India to recreate the fabric and he made two dresses identical to the original that is so fragile it cannot be displayed. Photo courtesy of June Gaeke

A favorite gown of Augusta Roddis, which she dubbed "Cocktail." The dress was made of taffetta, a very delicate fabric. Maeder found a manufacturer in India to recreate the fabric and he made two dresses identical to the original that is so fragile it cannot be displayed. One of the reproductions will be donated later to the Marshfield Historical Preservation Association. "American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850–1995" by Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder V&A Publishing and accompanying exhibition https://www.thehenryford.org/current-­‐events/calendar/american-­‐style-­‐and-­‐spirit-­‐
exhibit/ Courtesy of Collections of the Henry Ford, photo by Gillian Bostock Ewing

Still life portraying the life of Hamilton Roddis. "American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850–1995" by Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder V&A Publishing and accompanying exhibition https://www.thehenryford.org/current-­‐events/calendar/american-­‐style-­‐and-­‐spirit-­‐
exhibit/ Courtesy of Collections of the Henry Ford, photo by Doug Mindell

Still life portraying the Roddis family shopping trips. "American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850–1995" by Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder V&A Publishing and accompanying exhibition https://www.thehenryford.org/current-­‐events/calendar/american-­‐style-­‐and-­‐spirit-­‐
exhibit/ Courtesy of Collections of the Henry Ford, photo by Doug Mindell

About 150 years of dresses, men's suits and other garments were stored in the attic of the Roddis family home in Marshfield. The extent of the collection was discovered following the death of Augusta Roddis in 2011. A recently published book describes the collection and its historical significance.(Photo: File/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

MARSHFIELD - Attics often become the repositories of used stuff. Don't know what to do with Grandma's china tea set? Stash it in a corner below the rafters and forget about it.

But no one, not even the family heirs, knew that a century-old Marshfield home held a treasure trove of garments of historical significance, not just to the city, but to the nation.

For nearly 100 years, the children and grandchildren of Hamilton Roddis lived, played and gathered in the house he built in Marshfield in 1914. This is where Augusta Roddis — the last living Roddis descendant in Marshfield — died in 2011 at age 94. She was among the generations of Roddis women who treasured family history and made sure to carefully store letters, memorabilia, photos and clothing in the home. In one of her letters, Augusta Roddis wrote that she had "always felt that to destroy a letter is to destroy a part of a person."

When Roddis' niece, Jane Bradbury, opened the attic door after her aunt died, she had no clue it held garments that dated to the years before the Civil War. The extensive collection includes evening gowns, dresses, undergarments, men's suits, hats, shoes and children's play clothes — all in pristine condition.

Detailed photos of the garments and five years of meticulous research about each piece are woven together to reveal stories about Marshfield and the nation. The collection is the basis for an extensively illustrated coffee table book, "American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850-1995," written by Bradbury, as well as by Edward Maeder, a renowned dress historian originally from Fenwood in Marathon County. Roddis' grandniece, Gillian Bostock Ewing, took photos of the pieces for the book.

While the garments give a glimpse into the fashions of an upper-middle class family, they come to life through the letters, photos and memorabilia saved for decades in the home. Some of the family correspondence included letters and receipts about pieces in the collection, Bradbury said. This gave Bradbury and Maeder the clues to complete extensive archival research on about 200 pieces of clothes.

Edward Maeder working on the recreation of a favorite gown of Augusta Roddis, which she dubbed "Cocktail." The dress was made of taffeta, a very delicate fabric. Maeder found a manufacturer in India to recreate the fabric and he made two dresses identical to the original that is so fragile it cannot be displayed.(Photo: Photo courtesy of June Gaeke)

"What was surprising is that the (Roddis) women, and in a few cases even the men, wrote about their clothes — what they had bought, what they wanted for their wardrobes and sometimes how they felt while wearing certain items of clothing," Bradbury said. "In some cases we were able to match the description with a garment found in the house."

A shopping trip to Chicago was a gala event with an eye to well-made and classically elegant dresses and suits. Augusta Roddis' 1932 Marshfield High School prom dress, a cream rayon gown with yellow and tangerine drapes, cost $19.95. Many of the family clothes were bought at Marshall Field & Co. or Carson Pirie Scott. Family members made several trips abroad that included buying dresses, including a beloved beaded silk lace dress by Adair of Paris purchased in 1923.

Photographer Gillian Bostock Ewing, a Roddis descendant, photographing a beaded silk lace dress by Adair of Paris. Following the death of Augusta Roddis, a sale was held of the items remaining in the home. A Marshfield couple purchased a suitcase that had been stored n the basement. The suitcase would not unlock and it was thought to be empty. The purchaser opened the suitcase later and found two beaded dresses from the 1920s and returned them to the Roddis house.(Photo: Photo courtesy of Edward Maeder)

The book brims with evocative descriptions of the garments and their original owners spanning 150 years of fashion and social history.

From the early 1900s to the years after World War II, the Roddis Lumber & Veneer Co., now Marshfield DoorSystems,was the city's largest employer. Hamilton Roddis' father, William H. Roddis, founded the business in the 1890s after he bought a failing veneer company. William H. Roddis steered the company toward making new products including doors. Under Hamilton Roddis' leadership, products made in Marshfield were used in building projects around the globe and played an important role in World War II.

During the war, the Allies needed a bomber with speed and stealth, leading to the creation of the de Havilland Mosquito glider made of wood from Roddis Lumber & Veneer Co. The Allied victory over Hitler's Germany was partially credited to the barrage by de Havilland bombers.

The famous veneer also lined the Roddis house attic. In a large, dark, paneled closet, often locked, the Roddis women carefully stored garments worn by family members over the years. Generations of the women in the family were accomplished seamstresses who understood fashion and style. They reused and often altered garments to reflect the changing fashions.

When Bradbury opened the attic after her aunt died, she found "a wonderful surprise," an overwhelming cache of clothes inside boxes stacked to the ceiling.

"No one knew the extent and that it covered almost 150 years," Bradbury said.

The Roddis attic in 2011 before Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder cataloged all the pieces and found items dating from the 1800s - 1900s.(Photo: Courtesy of Gillian Bostock Ewing)

She knew her aunt had carefully stored multiple dresses. Bradbury, who studied textiles and fashion in college, wanted to document what she thought was a small collection. She asked Maeder, the dress historian, to assess the clothes as they took dresses out of garment bags and boxes.

Not only were there dresses, but there were undergarments, men's suits, a variety of accessories and children's frocks with the collection dating back to the 1850s.

"Jane went into the closet and brought out the first dress, and then she brought out more and more dresses," Maeder said. "We thought the earlier more important ones would be first, but we kept finding more and more pieces."

Some of the dresses Bradbury remembered from childhood visits to the homestead, but as she opened more boxes, she found dresses from the 1920s, then a box of "beautiful lacy white blouses" from the 1910s and another box with a bonnet from 1850.

"It was thrilling," Bradbury said. "When we saw that there were clothes from every decade starting from 1900, as well as the few exquisite early dresses from about 1856 and 1880, it dawned on us that there might be the making of an exhibition right there in that house."

Several of the pieces from the Roddis collection prepared for photography by Gillian Bostock Ewing.(Photo: Courtesy of Edward Maeder)

Bradbury and Maeder combed through more than 10,000 letters, photos and boxes of old magazines, travel brochures, and other family memorabilia to tell the Roddis family story. They also researched the garments by scouring archives at fashion institutes and other museums to learn about the designers, textiles and period styles used in the making of each piece.

The book also is a remarkable resource about clothing of the different eras and their designers and provides "insight into the role of fashion in the lives of ordinary men and women," according to a forward to the book written by Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.

"This collection is significant because it also includes the undergarments, the shoes and the hats of the time and much of it was carefully preserved," Maeder said.

Bradbury, who inherited the collection, donated the majority of it to The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, where it will remain on display through April 2. Several pieces including a men's suit are slated for donation to Marshfield's history museum later.

Two highly stylized pieces, including the dress on the cover of the book, probably were made by Bradbury’s grandmother, Catherine Sarah Prindle, the wife of Hamilton Roddis.

The book cover dress is red and trimmed with shirred beaver made around 1934. The other is a blue satin-backed crepe evening gown with rhinestone buckles made about 1938. A detailed photo of the evening gown shows the luscious folds of the fabric fastened with a sphere of glittering rhinestones. Neither dress has any labels and both "look kind of homemade," Bradbury said. She also found many dress-making patterns in the home, including a Chicago newspaper article with an advertisement similar to the red dress.

"I can't prove it," Bradbury said about her grandmother making the dresses. But, she said, "the (Great) Depression was hard on everyone, including the (Roddis) family."

There are many collections of clothing worn by famous or extremely wealthy Americans but very few that document the lives and fashions of the upper-middle class, Maeder said.

"Never before has there been a collection like this because the Roddises were not Vanderbilts or Rockefellers but an educated and cultured upper-middle class family," Maeder said. "This collection is truly one of a kind."

"American Style and Spirit, Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family, 1850-1995"

What: A coffee-table book produced by Jane Bradbury and Edward Maeder, with photos by Roddis grandneice Gillian Bostock Ewing and by Doug Mindell, along with reproductions of historic photos and memorabilia. The book was published by V&A Publishing and lists for $45.

How to get a copy: Book World, Barnes & Noble and other book sellers including Amazon.com